Blender 5.0 vs 3.0: CPU Rendering Benchmarks (2025)
• Blender 5.0 released Nov 2025; Phoronix re-tested Blender 3.0 through 5.0 for CPU render performance. • Tests ran on a 96‑core AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 9995WX under Ubuntu 24.04 LTS with Linux 6.18. • Overall CPU rendering performance was largely flat across releases; different scenes favored different Blender versions. • Scene winners: BMW & Classroom (3.3), Fishy Cat & Barbershop (4.1), Pabellon Barcelona (3.6). Official Blender binaries used.
Methodology
Phoronix author Michael Larabel re-ran CPU-only Blender render benchmarks using official Blender binaries for every major release from Blender 3.0 (Dec 2021) through Blender 5.0 (Nov 2025).
Test system
The machine was a high-end workstation: a 96-core AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 9995WX running Ubuntu 24.04 LTS and the Linux 6.18 kernel. Using a consistent system and OS ensured differences came from Blender builds rather than hardware or driver changes.
Scenes and settings
A variety of Blend files were exercised to capture different rendering workloads: BMW27 (light geometry), Classroom, Fishy Cat, Barbershop, and Pabellon Barcelona. All tests were CPU-only to isolate CPU rendering performance across versions.
Results
Across the tested scene set, there were only modest performance shifts between Blender 3.0, 3.x, 4.x, and 5.0. No single release delivered a consistent, across-the-board CPU rendering lead on this 96-core Threadripper system.
Per-scene winners
BMW27 & Classroom
Both the BMW and Classroom scenes showed 3.3 as the fastest build. These scenes are relatively light on compute for modern CPUs, which likely reduces the opportunity for big gains between versions.
Fishy Cat & Barbershop
Blender 4.1 produced the best CPU times for Fishy Cat and Barbershop. These results suggest specific renderer optimizations or scheduling changes in 4.1 benefited those workloads.
Pabellon Barcelona
Pabellon Barcelona favored Blender 3.6. The variation underlines that scene composition and shader complexity can change which Blender build performs best.
What this means
For CPU-focused Blender users on high-core systems like the Threadripper PRO 9995WX, upgrading Blender won’t necessarily yield large CPU render speedups across all projects. Performance changed modestly between releases and was workload-dependent.
If you rely on CPU rendering, test newer Blender builds against your specific scenes before committing to a workflow change. For general advice, GPU rendering and project-specific profiling remain the fastest levers for reducing render times.
Results and charts are published by Phoronix as part of their year‑end benchmarking coverage; Michael Larabel authored the report.
